The present invention is concerned with a cooker of the type having a cooking base and a cover.
Several different types of cookers presently exist on the market. Each of these cookers is adapted for a specific use and cooking process. To this day, different cookers are provided for different cooking processes. For example and just to name a few, woks are designed to stir-fry foods together, pressure cookers cook food under high temperature and steam pressure and frying pans are designed to fry food.
For most of these cookers, the essential component allowing effective cooking of foods is provided by the cooking vessel or the base unit. Therefore, the covers for most of these cookers act only as a secondary component, or an accessory that is not essential for the cooking process.
Furthermore, in most cases, a substantially amount of oil is needed for cooking the food. If not enough oil is used, the food, especially meat, will become very dry and tough. If too much oil is used, the food will be very oily and unhealthy to eat.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,511,466 is concerned with a cooker that has an annular trough on the periphery of the cooking vessel to allow separate cooking or treatment of foodstuff.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,287,798 is concerned with a high temperature dry steam cooker. According to this patent, foods are cooked with high temperatures steam created within the confinement of the cooker. In use, water is placed in the base unit and food is placed on a rack that sits above the base unit containing water. During cooking, a tray and a steam baffle is installed over the rack containing food and the cover is then installed thereon thereby creating the cooking confinement.
In view of the above, there is a need to design a cooker that is simple in structure, multifunctional and allows a healthy way of cooking foods.
A first object of the present Invention is to provide a cooker that is multifunctional in that it can carry out different cooking processes such as all forms of stove-cooking without limiting to frying, steaming, poaching, boiling, stir-frying, and saute, as well as other oven-like cooking processes not limiting to baking and roasting on the stove top.
A second object of the invention is to provide a cooker that is simple in structure and easy to use.
A third object of the present invention is to provide a cooker that allows a faster way of cooking food.
A fourth object of the present invention is to provide a cooker that allows a healthier way of cooking food.
A fifth object of the present invention is to provide a cooker that will retain the moisture and vitamins of the food.
Accordingly, the objects of the present invention are met with a cooker comprising a cooking vessel and a cover,
the cooking vessel comprising an open receptacle having a bottom surface which extends upwardly and unitarily to terminate at a circular rim, the rim having a diameter and an end extending upwardly thereby forming an annular collar, the annular collar having a diameter larger than the diameter of the rim;
a cover having a top and a bottom end, the bottom end having a circular edge adapted to sit on the rim of the cooking vessel, the circular edge having a diameter smaller than the diameter of the annular collar, the cover extending straight and upwardly from the circular edge to form an annular wall of a predetermined height, the annular wall extending inwardly to form a top end, the top end including a handle.
The objects and advantages and other features of the present invention will become more apparent upon reading of the following non-restrictive description of a preferred embodiment thereof, given for the purpose of exemplification only, with reference to the accompanying drawings.